Smarter Decisions: The Feast
by JasperWhitlockHale1863
Summary: AU Clato story! Clove survives the feast but someone dies there, who? Read to find out! Rated T because it's the Hunger Games. Chapter Three: The Final Battle
1. The Feast

**Author's Note: I got a laptop! 4 days ago but still… This story is dedicated to my Grandpa because he was in the hospital for a couple days. He's all better now, though! I don't own the Hunger Games because if I did this is how it would end. **

Cato POV

"Do you think the feast will start soon?" I ask Clove. We've both been a little hungry, ever sense Little Miss 'Girl on Fire' blew up our supplies.

"I don't know. I hope so! Then I can finally kill Twelve!" Clove says, staring at her knives, with a murderous look on her face.

"No way! You are not going! It's to-" I get cut off from a little announcement in the sky.

"Hello remaining tributes of the 74th annual Hunger Games! Tomorrow is the moment you have all been waiting for, the feast!"

Clove smiles maliciously at the announcement. It _is_ the moment she's been waiting for.

"Now hold on. Some of you may already be declining my invitation."

"Who would give up the chance to-" Clove starts before I clamp my hand over her mouth. We need to hear the rest of the message.

"But this is no ordinary feast. Each of you needs something desperately."

I scoff at his use of the word desperately. Maybe for the others, and maybe for us in a week, but now? No way!

"Each of you will find that something in a backpack, marked with your district number, at the Cornucopia at dawn. Think hard about refusing to show up. For some of you, this will be your last chance."

"Wanna go now?" I ask her, smiling.

"Do you even have to ask?" She responds, "Of course!"

We take all of our supplies, since someone may stumble upon our camp and take everything. Especially District Five. Nobody but myself saw this, but back when we had our large camp she would steal from us. I didn't go after her though. Although I excel in strength, weaponry, and hand to hand combat, speed is not my specialty.

"You're not the one going to retrieve our bag, Clove," I tell her as we take off on our mile long journey.

'Yes, I am," She says crossly. "I've wanted to kill District Twelve ever since the parade. Tomorrow is the day I finally get my chance. Don't take it away from me."

"I don't want to take it away from you. But District Eleven could be there. He's almost as big as me. He could kill you. I can't let you die. I love you." I whisper back.

"Yeah, yeah that's all romantic and sweet and everything. But he's from _Eleven_. We're from Two. Even if he is bigger than me, it should even out." She says, also talking quieter.

"Alright, you can go. But I'll be at the edge of the woods. If I see any trouble at all, I'm coming out."

"Fine," She says, a lot happier now.

It's silent for a moment before I say, "But promise me one thing. You have to put on a good show."

"Of course!" She smiles, "I wouldn't think of doing anything else!"

The rest of the walk is silent besides the soft crunch of leaves underneath our feet. We took a slow walk, so when we get to the woods near the Cornucopia it looks to be about 11:00. We look into each other's eyes and silently agree we should rest up since tomorrow is a big day. Just as we're about to lie down I plant a kiss on her forehand. We both smile, falling asleep in happiness.

I wake up to a punch in the chest. I'm immediately alert, fearing that another tribute has discovered us. When I look up I'm relieved that it's just Clove. Not that the two of us together couldn't take any of the other tributes, but still…

She points up to the sky and I can see that's there's ten minutes, at most, until dawn. Clove smiles at me, a knife already in her hand, ready for the battle to come. I smile back, but neither of us dares to talk. As much as we'd both love to kill someone, we'd like do it for fun, rather than protection.

Seven minutes pass with neither of us making a sound or movement. Suddenly, the ground shakes, and the horn splits in half. Up rises a table. On it sits four bags. A tiny orange one with a '12', a medium green one with a '5', and two large black ones with '11' and '2'. Ours. The girl from Five dashes out and grabs her bag. She doesn't take anyone else's bag, and scurries back into to the woods quickly. No biggie. Excluding Lover Boy, she's the least threatening.

"Remember, don't take Eleven's bag," I tell her, almost inaudibly.

She just glares back.

Clove POV

"Remember – Eleven – bag," Is all I can make out from what Cato is saying.

I know what he means and I glare at him. I can take care of myself.

Suddenly, District Twelve dashes out and I immediately run after her. It's time. I fling the knife that's already in my hand at her head, a perfect hit, but she deflects it with her bow.

"Crap!" I mutter.

In a quick movement she loads her bow and aims straight for my heart. I dodge it, but just barely. It still hits me, but at the top of my left shoulder. It slows me down, and hurts like heck, but it's not a problem. I'm on a mission.

Sadly, since I had to pull out the arrow and check my wound, Fire Girl had the chance to grab her bag and start making a run for it. I immediately grab one of the knives from my pocket, one of the smaller, less deadly ones. I don't want to kill her – yet. When I send this knife towards her she can't hind from it. Lucky, just as it flew out of my hand she turned to look at me. It hits her and creates a large gash in her forehead.

She sends another arrow my way, but this time it's not even close to hitting me. I run toward my victim, slamming into her, and knocking her to the ground. Time to die, District Twelve. The moment has arrived. I instantly pin her to the ground with my knees so there is no chance of escape.

"Where's your boyfriend, District Twelve?" I ask with a cruel smile on my face," Still hanging on?"

"He's out there now. Hunting Cato," She says, trying to be scary, but failing miserably. I almost laugh at her attempt until she calls out, "Peeta!" I realize she might be serious, so I shove my fist into her windpipe. I turn my head around, quickly surveying the area, concerned until I see Cato crouching near the place where we set up camp last night. Relief floods over me, knowing that she lied. He gives me a questioning look, as if to say 'Why are you looking around? Kill her!'

"Liar," I say, grinning. "He's nearly dead. Cato knows where he cut him. You've probably got him strapped up in some tree while you try to keep his heart going. What's in the pretty little backpack? The medicine for Lover Boy? Too bad he'll never get it."

I open up my jacket and for a fraction of a second I admire my vast collection of knives. Surveying them, I pick the perfect torture weapon, a small knife, with a beautiful curved blade. "I promised Cato if he let me have you, I'd give the audience a good show," I say in a way that onlookers would consider nasty.

She struggles pathetically to get me off of her. Ha! What chance does she have against me?

"Forget it, District Twelve. We're going to kill you. Just like we did with your pathetic little ally . . . what was her name? The one that hopped around in the trees? Rue? Well, first Rue, then you, and then I think we'll just let nature take care of Lover Boy. How does that sound?" I pause for a moment, and see sadness across her face. I struck a nerve there, talking about Lover Boy and Tree Girl, huh? I smile then say, "Now, where to start?"

The blood from my earlier cut has dripped down her face, so I wipe it into her hair. This makes it easier to study her face, and it gives me a larger canvas for my violent masterpiece. As I grab her face to study the blank sheet that will turn into a work of art, she tries to bite me! I instantly grab her hair, yanking it, pulling her entire face back to the ground.

"I think . . . I think I'll start with your mouth," I purr. She closes her mouth almost instantly, as if that will help!

With the tip of my blade I trace the edge of her mouth in a teasing way, careful not to break any skin. The time for that will come soon enough.

"Yes, I don't think you'll have much use for your lips anymore. Want to blow Lover Boy one last kiss?"

She spits in my face, blood and saliva. Gross! "All right then," I growl, "Let's get started."

Just as I pierce Fire Girl's lip, I hear Cato cry out, "Clove!"

I look around and see District Eleven and Cato in a fight. It's looks pretty even but who knows what weapons this boy could be hiding. I run towards them, but not without stabbing District Twelve in the arm first. She screams in pure agony, and if Cato wasn't fighting for his life, I would smile.

"Cato!" I yell back, and throw my knife towards District Eleven's back. Luckily, he decides to turn around at just the right moment, and it hits him, just inches from his heart. Surely he's dead.

"Run, Girl on Fire!" he yells, and I quickly turn around. I mutter many profanities under my breath, and she's already out of sight.

Cato had gone to retrieve both bags, but now he's back at my side and we start to retreat back to our camp when District Eleven starts yelling.

"You Careers don't deserve to win! District Twelve does! They kill to save their own lives, you kill for fun! You don't deserve to win! You ruthless _murderers_! You killed the little girl! You killed-" It's hard to sound threatening when you're dying. Poor little boy, using up his last breaths to yell at us. And he didn't even get to finish. The boom of his cannon doesn't even faze us.

"Well that was exciting!" Cato says enthusiastically.

I smile back at him, sad I didn't get to kill Twelve, but when Cato smiles, it's impossible to resist smiling back.

"Wanna rest?" He asks a few moments later when we're back to our campsite.

"No way! We still have three tributes left to kill!" I reply back, still in a great mood.

Both of us smile at the thought, and we pack up the little supplies that we have. Just as we're about to head out, Cato kisses me! It's not like he hasn't kissed me before, but we're in the freaking Hunger Games! We're supposed to be the killing machines, not the lovers! Finally my hormones kick in and a kiss him back.

"We will win," He says after we break apart, "Together."

**Author's Note: The story is not over! Chapter 2 will be up soon! What I really hate is when people write stories about Clove surviving the feast, and then not continuing them. I didn't kill Katniss yet because otherwise the rest of the story would be boring. *Spoiler* The final battle will be between the two sets of District partners! Sorry, Foxface. Don't worry, I like her, her death will be painless.**


	2. Foxface

**Author's Note: Gosh! I meant to update so much sooner! Sorry! I don't own the Hunger Games because if I did I wouldn't let the movie ship Glato.**

Clove POV

Cato and I having been roaming around the arena for almost five hours and we haven't found any of the other tributes! I cannot go any longer without killing something! Anything! Sure, I killed that piece of crap from Eleven this morning, but that was out of protection. I hate killing for protection! A kill is meant to be savored, something-

"Clove! Clove!" Cato calls out softly, waving his hands in front of my face.

"What! Huh! You find someone?" I whisper back, suddenly alert.

"No, no. It's just you weren't really paying attention, is something wrong?" Cato say, a bit concerned.

"Not at all! Just thinking. Do you think there will be any interference from the Game Makers soon?" I lie smoothly, though I am actually curious.

"I was just thinking the same thing, but I don't think so, the Feast was quite exciting! In fact, wanna take a break? Hour maybe? Half?"

I consider his suggestion for a moment. I really want to get to killing, but it's so much more fun at night!

"Two hours of sleep each?" I suggest, "Then we can start hunting when it gets dark!"

Cato nods his head in agreement, and falls asleep soon after. Once I hear quiet snores coming from him I dart up from my immobile position, wandering around the surrounding area, looking for any signs of danger. When I don't see any I go back over to where Cato is napping and lay next to him. Bored, I visualize hundreds of ways to kill Fire Girl. Satisfying.

I look up at the sky, trying to judge how long it's been since Cato fell asleep. It seems close enough to two hours, so I wake him in my usual way, punching him.

"Ow!" He says, in slight pain.

"Your turn," I say, smirking, and then I drift off into a peaceful slumber.

"Clove!" Cato says shaking me. I look up at the sky! God, Cato! It's only been ten minutes.

"Clove, over there!"

I look to where he is pointing. A flash of red, running away from us. Five!

"Let's go!" I shout as quiet as I can, wondering why Cato isn't already running.

Luckily we both already have our weapons in our hands (or in my case, also in my vest) and can start the hunt.

***************************After running for five minutes**********************************

That girl is fast! Luckily we've reached a less heavily wooded area so there are fewer trees for her to dodge behind. This is our chance! I throw one of my smaller knives at her leg, and she tumbles to the ground immediately. She's a fighter though, and gets back up real quick. This time she's slower and it's only thirty seconds later that we catch up with her. Cato slams into her, both of them falling to the ground. Time for the kill.

"Please! Don't – don't kill me! I – I can help you! I can help kill the Twelve tributes! Just le – let me live!" She stutters, panicking.

"Hmm . . ." I say with fake consideration, "Most people might consider that option, but we're not most people."

Cato smiles at that and then says, "And besides, why would we let you share our glory? Their deaths will be on our hands, and our hands only. Just like yours."

The girl tries to utter some final words, but we won't let her. We stab her at exactly the same time, his sword in her stomach, my knife in her heart.

The cannon booms and we smile at each other. Two more to go.

Quickly we move out so the hovercraft can collect the body. We walk back and I realize how far we've traveled. It takes fifteen minutes to get back the camp at a walking pace! Our pursuit covered almost two miles!

When we arrive back at camp I suddenly spot the bags! How did we forget about them?

I nudge Cato and point to the bags. He has the same look on his face that I presume I had when I rediscovered them.

"What are we waiting for? Let's open them!" Cato exclaims like a child on Christmas.

I take Eleven's bag and Cato takes ours. I open 'mine' and it's just a couple stupid weapons. A spear so long that it seems impossible to use, though it can be compressed into something smaller, and a small knife. I can add that to my collection, it'll replace the one I lost to Five. But really, nothing that good.

I look over to what Cato found and it's much more impressive! Flesh colored armor that will cover the top half of our bodies. There's nothing to protect our heads and lower bodies, but Fire Girl seems to like to aim for the heart, so it's a great find.

Cato looks over to Eleven's bag, and he isn't impressed either. Couldn't it have been some food or something? We're close to running low on that.

"I'm going to get some water," I tell him after a few minutes of silence.

He nods and I can see him starting to take inventory of our supplies. Cool.

We're nowhere near the lake so I look for muddy spots. I find a few, but there are no deep puddles of water. Then it hits me. They want to drive us together, to the Cornucopia. The final battle. I grin at the thought, and start heading back to Cato. It's time.

**Author's Note: This probably wasn't as good as the other chapter. Oh well. Congrats for all the awards Hunger Games got at the Teen Choice Awards! I guess a Hunger Games fanfic isn't the right place to rant about all the Twilight awards, darn. But they were amazing! The next chapter will be up soon! For real this time.**


	3. The Final Battle

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update! I had writer's block. Lame excuse, I know. Note before reading, I imagine Clove to be the smartest Career. I don't own the Hunger Games.**

Clove POV

When I get back to camp Cato looks up at me and says, "You get the water?"

"The lake's dried up; all the water that's left is muddy and gross." I state simply.

"What do you think that means?" Cato asks. I sigh. He may be smarter than Marvel and that airhead Glimmer, but I'm the intelligent one in our alliance.

"The Game Makers. They want to draw us together. Possibly to the water source near the Cornucopia?" I say. I'm not one hundred percent sure on where they want us to go.

"Oh yeah! Let's go! Cornucopia seems like a place for an epic battle!"

"Woah woah woah! Not so fast! We should take inventory of our supplies first. See what we can eat now and what we can save. And of course, we need to know what weapons we have." Again, I'm the smart one.

Cato nods his head in agreement. As we count up the supplies, we realize how little food we actually have. There are two apples, one of which is half rotten. I throw that one out and put the other one in the 'eat soon' pile. There's also two packets of dried fruit, a close to stale piece of bread, a few pieces of dried jerky, and a squirrel that we caught yesterday. The jerky and fruit can be saved, but it will be best to eat the bread and squirrel now.

I walk over to Cato who's counting up our weapons. I've been eager to get over here, since Cato said I had to give him my knives for the final count. I told him that I had nine with me, but he wouldn't let me keep them!

"You were wrong." He says with a smirk, "You only had eight." I stick my tongue out at him. Big difference.

"Just tell me what we have." I say, glaring.

He smirks again and then says, "My sword, your eight knives plus one other one, the spear from Eleven's bag, and another spear."

I tell him what food we have and he agrees with what we should eat. We have our meal in silence and just as we've finished up Cato asks, "So what weapons do you think the lovebirds will have?"

I never thought about that. "Well Fire Girl has her bow and arrow, and they also have one of my knives. They might have Marvel's spear as well."

"One of _your_ knives?"

Crap. Nobody was supposed to know about that.

"Do tell."

"I consider all the knives in the arena to be mine." I lie.

"Sure, sure." Cato says. Grr.

"Well I'm taking all the knives." I say. I put seven of them in my vest and the other three in my hand.

"Of course. I get my sword and the bigger spear; you can have the small one." He says, _trying_ to big nice.

"Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't handle the big one! Give it to me!" I shout.

"Alright, alright, sheesh. Take it."

"Put the food in the bags." I say.

"And the sleeping bags?" He asks.

"Leave them! We'll be winning tonight."

"Then why can't we eat the food now?"

Oh. Right.

"I guess we can." I say, taking two pieces of jerky, while Cato takes one piece and some dried fruit. We eat these, and then put the armor on.

"Time for the final kill!" Cato exclaims.

"Let's go!" This will be fun.

**********************************Close to the Cornucopia*******************************

We walk along, not going very fast. We need to save our energy. Killing is more fun when you're not panting, and you get to concentrate on making your victim suffer.

I hear a noise, a short distance away. Too loud to be the lovebirds. I turn my head to see what it is. Mutts!

"Cato, run!" I screech.

He turns around for a second and immediately sees the Mutts, getting closer every second. I'm already running, and he's a couple feet behind me. Not running on the way here turned out to be a good thing, now we have a chance of out running these beasts.

We've run a good distance now, I can see we'll reach the Cornucopia soon, and we'll be able to kill the little star crossed lovers. If the Mutts don't kill us first.

"Up it!" Cato yells to me. It takes a couple seconds to figure out what he means, since I have to keep focusing on running, but I soon realize what he means, up the Cornucopia.

"K!" I yell back.

We reach the Cornucopia, and luckily it's pretty easy to climb. But it isn't until we're up there that we realize we're not alone. The little pigs have come to the slaughter.

"Can they climb it?" Cato asks me, panting.

"What?" Fire Girl says, seemingly talking to us. Lady! We don't talk to our victims, unless it's to taunt.

"Don't think so." I say, also breathless.

The Fire Children are talking, but it's not worth the effort to listen.

Cato crawls over to me and whispers the words, "Weaken them," in my ear.

We've both caught our breath now and Cato runs over to Fire Girl, tackling her, but being careful to stay on the Cornucopia. Lover Boy instantly tries to help her, but I run up behind him, catching him by surprise, and he falls down, my knife piercing his skin. He cries out in pain and Fire Girl looks over, a murderous look on her face. Too bad. It's time for you to die.

I leap on top of Twelve, pinning him down, much like I did with to his girlfriend at the feast. Subconsciously I can tell that Cato has Fire Girl in a headlock, forcing her to watch.

"So, Lover Boy. We meet again. You lasted a long time, even without us Careers, I'm impressed."

"I have Katniss to thank for that." He says hoarsely.

"Hmm…Katniss. Is that her name?" I ask, even though I know what it is, "Not very pretty if you ask me."

He growls, and I slam my fist into his mouth, possibly chipping a few teeth.

"You know what?" I say, "I think I'll be nice to you, I'll make your death quick."

He doesn't have any time to question what I just said before I cut a huge gash in his other leg, and he crumples to the floor. I then cut him twice more, pretty deep, once in each arm.

"Say goodbye," I snicker, forcing him to have one last look at his little girlfriend. Then I effortlessly toss him to the Mutts.

"Nooooo!" Our last victim calls out, in what can only be described as pure agony.

"Peeta!" She cries out, so loud that it's almost hoarse.

"Just kill me now!" She shrieks, trying, and almost humorously failing, at grabbing a weapon to commit suicide.

"Now, now little girl," Cato sneers, "You must have some reason to live. Don't you have a little sister at home, I heard her name once, Thim?"

"Don't. Talk. About. Prim." She shouts in complete and total fury.

Cato decides to ignore her and just get started with the kill. I hear moans every once and a while, but I can tell she's trying not to scream.

"See, that's the difference between you and Lover Boy. You're no fun. We should've killed him slowly, not you."

She musters up a glare that might seem deadly if she wasn't the one about to die.

I get bored with the show, and if I ever want to watch it, it will be on tape. I look around at the Mutts and notice something very strange about their. They're almost human. Then I see one that confirms what I just thought. I stare into the eyes of one Mutt and can see that they're clearly the eyes of my former ally, Marvel. I look at that Mutt for a bit longer, and the hair, or I guess fur, color seems to be the same shade as his was. But the brains surely can't be his, since he is trying to climb to Cornucopia and kill me, just like the rest of them.

Still bored, I fling knives at some of the Mutts. It won't do them much harm, but it's still fun. My main targets are the pair from Eleven. The boy tried to kill Cato, and the little one helped Fire Girl kill my allies.

I feel like throwing one really far, so I throw it all the way across the Cornucopia. Sadly it does not make it there. Cato lost his grip on Fire Girl for a moment and she somehow lifts her head up. It hits her, and it was thrown so hard that I hear the crack of her skull. Surely she'll be dead soon.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry Cato!" I call, running over to him, "I didn't mean to hit her!"

Fire Girl gives me a look that says, "Are you really apologizing to him when I'm the one you just killed?"

"It's fine!" He says cheerfully, "I was almost done anyways."

I smile at that.

"We'll be nice. You can spend your final moments with your dead Lover Boy." I say to her, about to shove her over the edge when she yells, "I don't really love him! I love Gale!" Too bad, she's already falling over the edge, and as soon as she hits the pack of Mutts, her cannon booms. Cato and I have won.

He rushes over to me and scoops me up, kissing me, and I gladly kiss him back.

"Citizens of Panem! I proudly present to you the Victors of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Clove Pierce and Cato Weber!"

**Author's Note: Sorry about the end, I'm Team Gale. Alright, normally I don't care if people review my story or not, but this time I want you to. I want people to tell me if the end is logical or not, if you think the lovebirds from Twelve would've put up a bigger fight or not. If Cato and Clove won too easily. Tell me your opinion on things like this. I care, and I want this to be as in character as possible. This story is over, but there might be a sequel (Life in District Two, the Final Interview thing, the Victory Tour).**


End file.
